Crab Cakes with Sweet Curry Red Bell Pepper Sauce
Crab Cakes with Sweet Curry Red Bell Pepper Sauce, one of the recipes from Cooking at Home with Charlie Trotter has become a staple in my repertoire lately. I’ve served them as an appetizer for a sit down meal, made them bite sized and served as finger food at a cocktail party and doubled up to serve as an entrée with an embellished salad for lunch. These little numbers are indeed versatile. I’ve been doubling The Sweet Red Bell Pepper Sauce and using it as a dip for potatoes and vegetables and a sauce for halibut.
In the book, there is a recipe for curry oil and an instruction to drizzle 1 teaspoon on the sauce with each serving. The curry oil needs to be made two days in advance. The first time I made the crab cakes I followed the instructions and made the curry oil too. I ended up with a surplus (about 2 cups worth). Sure that there were more recipes in the book that called for it I figured it would be used over the next couple of weeks. After scouring the book for additional uses it was clear that this was the only recipe that called for the oil which I thought was a big miss. Since I don’t feel that the curry oil is vital to the success of the recipe it has been omitted below.
Here’s the adapted version, I hope you enjoy it as much as I have…
Sauce
½ cup mayonnaise
½ roasted red bell pepper (if you can make your own that’s best, otherwise, use your favorite brand)
½ teaspoon minced garlic
½ teaspoon sweet curry powder
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Crab Cakes
¾ cup bread crumbs
1 ½ tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
12 oz lump crabmeat, cleaned
3 tablespoons diced red bell pepper
1 jalapeño, seeded and chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
2 teaspoons freshly squeezed lime juice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 hand full arugula
To make the sauce: Puree the mayonnaise, bell pepper, garlic, and curry powder until smooth. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
To prepare the crab cakes: Combine the bread crumbs and parsley in a small bowl and set aside. Place the crabmeat in a medium bowl. Fold in the bell pepper, jalapeño, chives, and lime juice and season with salt and pepper. Fold in ¼ cup of the bread crumb mixture and tablespoons of the sauce.
Divide the crab mixture into 8 equal portions and form into patties. Dredge the crab cake in the remaining bread crumbs. Cook in the canola oil in a hot sauté pan for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until golden brown and crispy.
To serve, place one-eight of the arugula on a plate, place one cake on top and drizzle sauce. Serve warm. Serves 8.
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